Big Bang Theory set | Photo: Warner Bros. Studios
Cover Big Bang Theory set | Photo: Warner Bros. Studios

Let's look back at the most impressive houses and apartments of young male lead characters that we have seen on television

1. Shin Joon-young (Uncontrollably Fond)

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Uncontrollably Fond
Above Screencap from "Uncontrollably Fond" / KBS2

This 2016 K drama has been well received across Asia and was Youku's (China's streaming site) most viewed Korean series. It follows Shin Joon-young (Kim Woo-bin) and Noh Eul (Bae Suzy) who were separated during their teenage years and later met in their adulthood.

Being an extremely famous actor-singer, Shin Joon-young was portrayed to have a large house with a clean, minimalist interior design of white and earth tone colour palette. The house is actually called the Rivendell Prestige Guesthouse and had been used in several other Korean dramas. The brutalist structure won an architectural prize in 2013 and was obviously named after J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional Elven town of Rivendell.

The low Modern square coffee table in the living room (picture above) is a perfect uncluttered centrepiece for a minimalist living room furniture set and suits the Asian interior design of having low tables.

See Also: Kim Woo-bin on Being Jaeger-LeCoultre's New Ambassador

2. Kim Tan (The Heirs)

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Photo 1 of 3 The Heirs | Photo: SBS
Photo 2 of 3 Laura Dern in Big Little Lies
Photo 3 of 3 The Heirs

Also known as The Inheritors, this 2013 Korean drama is set in a high school populated by the privileged and the über rich. At the forefront of the story is Kim Tan, portrayed by Lee Min-ho, who is a wealthy heir to a large Korean conglomerate called Jeguk Group. He was exiled to the US by his brother, Kim Won, making him live in a Californian beach mansion.

The house was actually built in 1991 and has been used in a number of Hollywood series. It has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, designed by the architecture firm Johnson Fain and structural engineering company Parker-Resnick. It is located 30km west of downtown Los Angeles and not very far from Malibu.

Its clean, mid-century modern design is complemented with a sprawling terraced garden beside its swimming pool. In the series, we see furniture and home décor of varying colours, accentuating the clean white walls, high ceiling, and wide glass windows.

Tatler Trivia: You may also remember this house as Laura Dern's humble abode on the hit show Big Little Lies.

See Also: Lee Min-ho's Best Movies And Shows

3. Ross Geller (Friends)

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Friends
Above Screencap from "Friends" / Warner Bros. Television

Everyone who watched the iconic sitcom Friends would know that Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) moved to the Ugly Naked Guy's apartment across his sister Monica's in the latter part of the series. Being the quirky palaeontologist in the series, his apartment would not only have the quintessential bachelor's pad elements of wood furniture, antiques, and ottomans but also fossils, peculiar finds like that metal dragonfly-designed plate, dinosaur toys and many more.

4. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

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How I Met Your Mother
Above Screencap from "How I Met Your Mother" / CBS

One episode in the beloved sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, has been dedicated to the bachelor pad of Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), which he calls "The Fortress".

Take one look and you will find the apartment not liveable because of its deliberately not-functioning appliances, but that is only because the famous character is so used to one night stands and prefer having women being scared away as it doesn't make him "relationship material". But those who love Barney Stinson's apartment would find a Stormtrooper suit in the corner, a samurai sword as décor, the black-and-white motif in his furniture and décor, the projection on his wide, blank wall that acts as his television, and of course, a hologram of himself when you enter.

Read More: 5 Most Stylish Male Characters In Movies

5. Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men)

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Two and a Half Men
Above Screencap from "Two and a Half Men" / CBS

Those who have watched Two and a Half Men easily commiserated with the struggles of the Harper brothers Charlie and Alan at the beginning of the show. And later, with Charlie Sheen's personal struggle in real life that made his character, Charlie, to be cut off from the show. Charlie's hedonistic lifestyle is best reflected in his Malibu beach house, which has been the centre of the show as well. To make the colonial house at one with the tropical atmosphere of the beach city, it is decorated with big plants and woodcraft furniture, like his cosy bed. But what completes it to be a consummate bachelor's pad is the grand piano by the patio door and his bar filled with his favourite drinks.

6. Chandler Bing and Joey Tribbiani (Friends)

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Friends_2
Above Screencap from "Friends" / Warner Bros. Television

Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) exemplify the best buddies trope who live together in a quaint New York apartment. Their apartment may be small but for the duration of the show, it went through a lot of changes and additions. One of the constant decors in it is the dartboard and Joey's whiteboard at the door where Chandler leaves him messages. But the most memorable scene concerning this apartment is when Joey bought them two recliner chairs and they sat on them throughout the episode. Now that's every man's chair when watching sports or movies and just chilling with friends.

7. Vinny Chase (Entourage)

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Entourage_3
Above Screencap from "Entourage" / HBO

The 2011 HBO series, Entourage, follows Vincent Chase, a young A-list movie star in Hollywood, who with his childhood friends attempt to make solid careers in Los Angeles. His sprawling mansion at the beginning of the show is known formally as the C.E. Toberman Estate.

It was built in 1926 for Charles Toberman, who was known as "Mr. Hollywood" for being the real estate developer behind many of the area's famous landmarks. The estate was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In the series, we find Vincent agile and athletic and so we see his house teeming with games like a small basketball court, some arcade game machines, and a pool table.

8. Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory)

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Big Bang Theory
Above Screencap from "Big Bang Theory" / CBS

Who said that nerdy geeks aren't fun to hang out with? Check out Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper's apartment in Big Bang Theory, and you'll see their huge collections of comics, toys and collectables with pop culture references, and not to mention, superhero costumes. Being scientists themselves who have achieved so much in their respective fields, large bookshelves that span the entirety of the walls is a must for their lifestyle.

9. Nick Miller, Schmidt, and Winston (New Girl)

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New Girl
Above Screencap from "New Girl" / Fox

For a loft type apartment, one of the most beautiful we've seen on TV is the Los Angeles loft of Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) in the American sitcom New Girl.

The show features characters in their early thirties, dealing with relationship issues and career choices like we do in real life, but fortunately, these three guys had Jess (Zooey Deschanel) moved in with them at the series' pilot episode. The three guys have different personalities and so the apartment is an amalgamation of their characteristics and lifestyle requirements. Generally, it has this early 20th-century architecture vibe, mixed with modern and eclectic styles. But with having an indoor basketball hoop and duct-taped board games, it makes the loft a fun environment to be in despite the demands of adulthood facing them.

10. First Doctor (Doctor Who)

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Doctor Who
Above Screencap from "Doctor Who" / BBC

Perhaps the most iconic of all is Tardis which was first introduced to us in this BBC science fiction series that first aired in 1963. Though we had the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) marring River Song (Alex Kingston) in the latter part of the show, we put our focus on the iconic time machine and spacecraft of the Doctor. We see it from the outside as a blue London telephone booth but as we always say, it is "bigger on the inside". In its first iteration, we see it more like an all-white spaceship that reminds us of another iconic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. But it also has colonial-era furniture like chairs, lamps, and ottoman, in his control room that perhaps the First Doctor (William Hartnell) has accumulated over his travels.

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